Synthetic Trees

A company in the States called GRT is working on an 'atmospheric scrubber' or synthetic tree.

The idea behind it is that it removes CO2 from the atmosphere (like a tree) but up to 1000 times faster. It then either stores the CO2 permanently or is re-used (e.g. for growing veg or fire extinguishers). More here.

The artist impressions (see picture) look a bit like a camping site toilet block but ii's otherwise relatively compact.

In an ideal world, the possibility of such devices would be great news. Something to be wheeled out as part of the overall plan to deal with climate change. A genuine symbol of hope.

However, we live in the Age of Stupid, so it's a 2 edged sword. If too many of the wrong sort of people get the idea this is a quick fix, we'll end up doing nothing at all about the root causes of the problem.

We'll just get endless ranks of 'trees' marching off across the horizon on every continent and no way to deal with all the giga-tonnes of CO2 being captured. But we won't be able to stop because we haven't bothered to solve the underlying problem!